Can plug-in solar panels improve a landlord’s EPC rating?

The feed-in tariff closed to new applicants in April 2019. Its replacement, the Smart Export Guarantee, needs an MCS certified installation, and a plug-in kit isn’t one, so anything you generate and don’t use goes to the grid for nothing.

The rules that came in on the 27th: 800W max at the inverter, panels up to 2kW DC, no batteries, one kit per property, and the DNO told within 28 days. If a tenant buys their own, that notification still has to happen at your property.

Reply to the comment left by Barry Smith at 28/08/2026 – 23:22
Hi Barry. My email is [email protected]
I would be pleased to hear your ideas.

Useful checklist before you go further:

1. Ask the EPC assessor in writing whether the proposed system is recognised in the current RdSAP methodology. Portable plug-in panels are generally treated as appliances, so do not assume they will change the asset rating.
2. Separate the EPC question from bill savings: check orientation, shading, output, storage, export limitations, and who pays for installation and electricity.
3. Price the whole compliant solution, including fixed mounting, electrical work, certification, maintenance, and any permissions. Check insurance and fire and electrical safety requirements.
4. Compare the cost and likely EPC points with simpler recommendations already on the EPC, and check any current grant or exemption route before committing across a portfolio.

If this is part of choosing or refurbishing a property, a fast England and Wales £/sqft and deal triage screen can be useful. Valu8 Flash is from £4.95 per report. It is a data-led screen, not a RICS valuation or legal advice.

Reply to the comment left by NewYorkie at 28/08/2026 – 12:08
NewYorkie, “No feed-in tariff” is a slightly odd criticism, given that the Feed-in Tariff closed to new applicants in 2019 and has been replaced by the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG).

And, rather inconveniently for the argument, Octopus are actually offering SEG payments for the plug-in solar kits they supply.

They do, of course, connect to the grid. Any surplus generation that isn’t being consumed or stored is exported to it. A separate AC-coupled battery can also absorb surplus generation, albeit with additional conversion losses.

As for where you’d put them — ideally somewhere sunny.

Agreed with the earlier answers — SAP only scores permanently installed systems, so plug-in units are treated as portable appliances and score nothing. That part is settled.

Two things that might matter more to you than the panels, though.

First, timing. Under the current rules a property that reaches C on the existing EER methodology before 1 October 2029 is deemed compliant until that EPC expires — and certificates run ten years. The replacement methodology is still out for consultation and isn’t law yet. So getting your Nottingham stock assessed and up to C on the current method, rather than waiting to see what lands, is worth doing on timing alone. Spend from 1 October 2025 counts towards the £10,000 cap too, so keep those invoices.

Second, if tenants do gain a right to install these, you’ll be handed a different problem. A plug-in unit isn’t a fixture — it’s the tenant’s property sitting in yours. Get it on the inventory when it arrives, photograph the socket and consumer unit, and agree in writing who removes it and who makes good. Otherwise it turns up at check-out as an argument.

I’m an inventory clerk and do EPCs, so that second one is the bit I see go wrong.

On the panels themselves nothing to add, the earlier answers have it right. Portable kit scores nothing because RdSAP only counts what’s permanently installed. Fixed, MCS panels are a different story and do add points, but that’s a proper install, not a plug-in.

The more useful question for a portfolio is what actually shifts the rating for the least money, because on the properties I assess it’s rarely the headline stuff that does it. Lighting is the easy win, 100 percent fixed LED across a property picks up points and costs very little. After that it’s fabric and controls. Loft insulation topped up to current depth, cavity walls filled where the construction allows, the hot water cylinder properly jacketed with a thermostat, and decent heating controls, a programmer, room thermostat and TRVs. Draught-proofing too. None of it is glamorous but it’s what moves a D to a C on the model.

Here’s the bit worth doing before you spend a penny across the portfolio. Get one representative property assessed and ask the assessor to model the proposed measures and show you the points each one earns before you commit. RdSAP doesn’t always reward what your instinct says it should, and you don’t want to find that out after you’ve kitted out twenty houses. Same logic as your panels worry, just applied to the whole list.

I run an EPC and inventory firm here in Birmingham (Capital Complete Solutions), so obvious bias. But that modelling step saves landlords more than any single measure does.